Arizona

Hello, I’ll be your tour guide today here at the art museum, so I’d like to welcome you to this month’s exhibit of Native American pottery. We’ll begin our tour in a few minutes. But first I’m going to tell you something a-bout the way this pottery was created. Pottery was made all over ancient North America by many different groups of people. One of the earliest of these ancient American cultures was the Hohokam people. They lived in what is now Arizona from about 300 BC to AD 1500. And it’s their pottery that you will be looking at today. All of the pottery was made from clay. Some objects were mugs, bowls for drinking and eating. You will also see finger rings and animal-shaped incense burners which we believe were probably used in special ritual. The Hohokam formed their pottery vessels from coils of clay. Then shaped them with special tool: create very thin sides on the vessels. Afterwards they painted the pottery with red design. Actual... many of the pieces here have designs right on them that show how the pottery was used. Now, I hope you’ll enjoy the beauty and the uniqueness of the Hohokam pottery and that will give you some interesting insights about the people who created it. Please feel free to ask me any questions and thank you for joining us today.